Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Ankha. I do not own this computer. I do not own the United States. I do not own Texas. I do not own this site. I do not own anything but the voices in my head. If anyone asks me again if I own anything recognizable in this story, I will lock them in a room with an assortment of Hagrid's pets. Get the idea? (AA: I certainly do.)
Ankha woke before the rest of the girls in her room and headed straight for the shower, before the mad rush hit. When she got out, everyone else was just waking up and dashing past her. She brushed her hair and went into the common room to find none other than Draco Malfoy waiting for her.
"Professor Snape told me I am to show you around. Right now breakfast is about to start, we will get our schedules then. I will walk you there." He moved to put his arm around her shoulders, but she stepped to the side and started walking to the door.
"Thank you, but I remember where the Great Hall is. I will see you there." And she exited the room before he had a chance to say anything else. She hurried down the corridors as fast as possible without running, and prayed he wasn't behind her. There are some kinds of people she just couldn't stand, and egotistical brats happened to be one of them. As she was walking, she didn't notice the boys in front of her until she ran into them, literally.
"Hey, watch where you are going!" The redheaded boy she just bowled over hollered at her as he tried to pick himself up. The other boy, who was able to get out of the way in time, helped him up and reached out to help her up. She accepted his hand gratefully and thanked him.
"Hey, you're the new girl from the States." She smiled.
"Yes, I am. My name is Ankha Valmoor. It is nice to meet you." She held out her hand to the red-headed boy, but he just took a step back and looked at his friend.
"Yeah, and she was sorted into Slytherin as well." As he stated that, he held a tone that made her look at him questioningly.
"What does my house have to do with anything?" He snorted at her.
"It is a well-known fact that everyone in Slytherin is evil. And Slytherin is our rival." He said it as though that explained everything, but it only made her more confused.
"I am not evil, so that cannot be true."
"Then I bet your parents are Death Eaters." She looked down. "That's it, I knew it, your parents are Death Eaters, and you probably are too." This made her really angry.
"My parents are dead, and besides, I don't even know what a Death Eater is!" This took the boy by surprise. He stammered a sorry, though one could tell it was reluctant, and wouldn't have come out at all if the other boy hadn't stomped on his foot.
"My name is Harry, Harry Potter. This is Ron Weasley. It is nice to meet you." He extended his hand, which she took politely. "And I am sorry about Ron, he gets a little angry when he gets knocked down."
"That's ok, and sorry again. I was trying to find the Great Hall and I think I am lost." She said as she looked behind her and saw Draco coming up, and looking a little out of breath. "If you will please show me the way, I would appreciate it." Ron was about to say something, but he caught sight of Draco coming towards them. Harry did as well and, knowing a confrontation was inevitable if they stayed there, he turned to the others.
"You were headed in the right direction. It is just up the hall a little, follow me." He proceeded to lead her to the Great Hall, leaving Draco behind. When they arrived at the Great Hall, Ankha did a quick calculation and, upon discovering it would be another three hours before the potion would be ready to work, sat at the Slytherin table (well hidden from Draco) and began eating breakfast.
After breakfast, Ankha slipped quietly out of the doors with a group of girls and was able to get back to the common rooms with no sign of Draco. She went to her room and gathered her things for Potions (the first class of the day) and headed out of the room.
She ran full speed through the dungeons. About now she wished she hadn't dumped Draco. She dashed down the third hallway, praying she found the right one. She sighed in relief when she heard the loud voice of the Potions Master drifting from one of the doors; then she realized that was a bad thing, she couldn't sneak in...or could she? Without making a sound she crept down the hallway and to the door. She peeked through the doorway to see him lecturing from the front of the classroom. All she had to do was wait until he turned his back. The perfect opportunity presented itself when he went to the board to write ingredients down. With all the speed, and quietness, Ankha could muster, she made it to the empty seat (amazingly at the back of the classroom). She was able to get everything set up before he turned back around.
The rest of class went on without much incident; the professor didn't even acknowledge whether or not he saw Ankha was late, and she was beginning to think she was home free until...
"Class is dismissed, Ankha will stay behind." The class scampered to get out as fast as they could before the Professor started to give out detentions. "Why were you late?"
"I had trouble finding the classroom." He sneered.
"I thought Draco was going to show you around." She blushed.
"I...um...I lost him after breakfast." He leaned back in his chair.
"Well, I have found him for you. He should be waiting outside the classroom." He then turned to a large stack of papers, clearly dismissing her. She left the classroom and met with Draco.
"Ankha, I have been looking for you. We do not have the next class together, but I will tell you how to get there." He gave her the directions and, after biding her farewell, he turned and strutted down the hall to where two of his friends were waiting. Groaning, she walked the opposite way; now there was no way to be rid of him. She made her way to Divination. After trudging stair after stair for what seemed like eternity, she finally made it.
The first thing Ankha noticed when she entered the room was the nausiating smell. She had to draw her head out for a second to catch her breath. She made her way directly to the only window in the circular room. As soon as she plopped down in a chair, Ron came up to her."Excuse me, you are in our seats." She looked at him apologetically.
"I'm sorry, but can I sit with you, I'm afraid I will throw up if I don't stay close to breathable air." She replyed in a heavy Texan accent. The boy was about to retort with a nasty comment when his friend put a hand on his shoulder.
"That's fine, it makes me sick as well." She smiled, then Ron replied.
"I think you are in the wrong class, Gryffindors are in here now. Each house has Divination at a different time." She pulled out her schedule and double checked it.
"No, it says that I have it this period." The boy glared and plopped down in the nearest 'seat'. "So, is this teacher any good; I mean, can she predict the future?" This sent Ron into a laughing fit.
"She has only made one real prediciton, but most of it is just show." Harry replied.
"Oh, the teacher I had at my old school was good at predicting. She even taught me how to work a crystal ball my first year."
"I can never work them, all I see is fog."
"It is really complicated, you have to be able to relax your mind and think at the same time."
"There is no way you can do that!" Ron said. Ankha laughed.
"That is exacly what I said, but she showed me some exercises that help." Ron just snorted and layed back in his chair. It was then that Trelawny decided to make her overly dramatic entrance, causing him to fall out of it.
"Ah, students, it seems we have a new student with us. I would like to introduce you to Ankha...Ankha...I'm sorry dear, your last name seems to be a riddle, could you enlighten us?"
"It's Valmoor."
"Yes, I knew as much, but one doesn't like to show that one is all-knowing. This year we will begin by looking into the misty fogs of the crystal ball, and move on to more advanced forms of telling the future. We shall begin today with crystal ball gazing. If you notice, every table has just enough crystal balls for its occupants. Remember to clear your mind as you gaze into its depths." Ankha pulled hers closer to her and started to look into it as she felt someone come up behind her. She turned to see Trelawny standing behind her, with an awful look on her face. "Oh, my, there are terrible things in your future!" Trelawny then twisted her face and gasped, "I see a grim, oh dear. You will not live long." To Ankha's surprise, Harry and Ron just laughed. The professor turned in a huff and went to pester some other people; she turned to Harry.
"You shouldn't laugh, she could have made a real prediction." Ron fell to the floor, overcome with laughter at this. Harry, doing his best to control his laughter, turned to her.
"She makes it a tradition to predict the death of a student. She has seen the grim in my future every time I had her class. Maybe now that you are here, she will leave me alone." Ankha nodded, though she was a little shaken up. The rest of class she sat and looked at the crystal ball, but didn't dare to relax her mind.
Severus sat in his office. He tried to concentrate on his work, but found he couldn't. Ankha's last name, Valmoor; he heard it somewhere before, but where? For some reason his mind connected it with Voldemort, but he couldn't remember why. And then the name on the box. It was as though his mind recognized it but refused to say from where. Maybe one of her parent's were Death Eaters? After a while he gave up and headed to the Great Hall for lunch, making a mental note to discuss it with Dumbledore.
Harry and Ron left divination with Ankha close behind them. Harry really didn't mind hanging out with her, she wasn't like most of the Slytherins, but Ron just couldn't get that through his head.
"Come on, Harry, maybe we can lose her." They hurried down the hall and around a corner. They slowed to a walk, thinking they lost her, but she came jogging up behind them. Ron turned and glared at her.
"Why are you following us? If I haven't made it clear, we are trying to stay away from you!" At this, Ankha's eyes darkened and she glared back at Ron, a look that sent shivers down Harry's spine. It reminded him of...his thoughts were interupted when Ankha threw a book at Ron.
"I was trying to give you the book you dropped when you left, but apparently you are so caught up in avoiding me, you didn't even realize your bag was ten pounds lighter." The two glared at each other. Harry knew better than to break them up, he might end up getting cursed. Ankha held up her wand, as did Ron. Harry backed a good twenty feet from them just to be safe. They sent curses hurling toward each other at the same time. Ankha's didn't do much, just made Ron's head look like it was bald. Ron's curse...well it wasn't a pretty sight. Ankha's hair was now long and gold, with small silver snakes highlighting it. Her skin was turned gold was well, and her normally black eyes were silvery. (AA: Does anyone sense symbolism here? I thought so.) Harry could not help but fall to the floor in laughter. Ankha, by now very angry, sent another curse to Ron. This one made roots sprout out of his head and ears and root themselves in the ground. Another curse flew, but it did not hit its intended target. Professor Snape, who heard the noise and came to see what was happening, had two devil horns coming out of his head, a red tail, and was holding a pitchfork. (AA: I'm in for it now. Does anyone know the number of a good doctor? Perhaps a lawyer?) He started to say something, but when he opened his mouth, he discovered his tongue was like that of a snake's. Undaunted, he hissed several words that made Harry turn red. He ran up to Ron and said,
"You should get out of here fast or Snape is going to kill you!" The two ran off down another hall (they may get detention longer for that, but that was not what they were perticularly worried about at that moment) leaving Ankha to face Snape's wrath. She looked at him, doing her best to keep from laughing, and tried to think of the counter spell; Snape would have done it himself, but he was still cursing Ron into next week. After a moments thought, she tried the only spell she could think of. For a second it looked like it would work, but then, on top of what he already looked like, his black robes turned into red, sequened robes. (AA: *Sits making out her will*) Ankha could do nothing but stare, her jaw almost hitting the ground. Snape, finally coming back to reality, took out his wand and tried to do a spell, but was unable to (his wand doesn't understand the spell in parseltongue). He said something along the lines of what spell needed to be performed, and, to his surprise, Ankha performed it. He looked curiously at her.
"Can you speak parseltongue, Ms. Valmoor?" She looked horrified at him.
"No, Sir, I just remembered what spell to do, we learned it last year." It crossed Snape's mind that the spell was too complicated for fourth years, but what students learned did differ from school to school, but still....
hehehehehehehehehehe (don't ask, I am very hyper!)
And that concludes the second chapter of Secrets of the Past. Please join us for our next chapter: umm...well...I don't know the name, but please join us. So long!!!!!
Also, believe it or not, a lot of the ideas in the duel came from Ankha! But a lot came from me as well. It is payback for what she did to me in her review to Gil-Celeb's 'Green and Red, Candles and Snow'. *sticks tongue out at Ankha* If you have not read the review, go read it, it is very funny, and is done in MST form.
I want reviews!!! I need reviews!!! Without reviews I will not be able to live!!! (ok, so maybe I will, but that is beside the point) Please Please Please review!!!!!!!!!!!!